


by the waterfront

by give_it_agreste



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bisexual Barry Allen, M/M, after flashpoint, barry messed up the timeline, canon divergence basically, elongflash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 22:39:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16942050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/give_it_agreste/pseuds/give_it_agreste
Summary: [canon divergence] After Barry Allen returns from the alternate universe he was living in with his parents, he finds out that some things have changed. His relationships with all of his friends are now different, there's a new guy at work... and someone from his past is back from the dead?





	by the waterfront

Barry Allen was quick. 

Not only was Barry the fastest man alive, h was a quick thinker. He was usually good at coming up with solutions and weighing the outcomes of situations. Usually. 

He never thought that’d be fine himself wanting to undo the past he’d changed. Why would he ever let his mom get murdered if he could do something to stop it? 

Nevertheless, he found himself running through time and space to do exactly that. He was running from this seemingly perfect world, where the world hadn’t been touched by the tragedy of Nora Allen’s death and the wrongful conviction of Henry Allen. 

Barry had thought that when he went back to stop himself from stopping his mother’s murder, than when he returned to the present time that everything would be as when he left. It was, however, not.

At first, nothing seemed to have changed. Barry was still Barry, and the house he had grown up in seemed to still be the same loving house he grew up in. 

Except when he walked in, asking Joe where Iris had gone, he had found he’d messed things up. 

Without thinking, Barry had completely messed up his timeline. He didn’t know who else to run to in this confusing time, so he ran to Starling City. 

“Felicity, I’ve messed up big this time,” he said, falling in to the chair next to her. “I--I--” 

“Slow down, Barry,” Felicity patted his shoulder, “Breathe. Start from the beginning.” 

After explaining everything that had changed for his life and finding out that Barry had changed John Diggle’s life as well, Barry ran back to Central City. That night, he’d tried fixing things by hosting a dinner at Joe’s. It didn’t go over so well.

“Barry, why are you acting so weird?” Iris pulled Barry into the hallway once he’d arrived back at S.T.A.R Labs.

“I don’t know what you mean?” 

“You keep trying to fix things between my dad and I. You don’t seem to understand why Cisco doesn’t want anything to do with you. I think you know what I mean. You’re keeping something from us. And Barry? If you can’t tell me the truth, this thing between us can’t happen.” 

Barry so desperately wanted to tell her the truth. To tell her everything. But would she believe him? Barry loved Iris. Every since they were children, Barry felt a strong connection with her. When Nora was murdered, and Henry was carted off to jail, Iris was the only one who could get through to him. So how could he lie to her? But how could he tell her the truth? That everything that was wrong with this world was his fault. 

No, he couldn’t. At least not yet. The only thing he had left in his arsenal of plans was to run back and somehow fix this. 

But as Barry was running through time, a familiar speedster pulled him out of the speed force. Jay Garrick--the real Jay Garrick--was there and handed Barry a set of time and place appropriate clothes. A skintight leather suit isn’t really appropriate in a diner setting, now is it? 

The year was 1998. Barry and Jay walked into the Motorcar Diner in Central City. They chatted for a bit before Jay revealed to Barry why he pulled him out of the speed vortex. He explained to Barry how he already shattered the space-time continuum, and that going back to fix it would just do more damage by using the metaphor of a teacup. 

“Barry, you are going to have to live with the consequences of your actions.” Jay sighed, “I know it’s going to be difficult, but you’ve got to tell them what you did.” 

“They’re going to hate me.” 

“If you just explain what you did and why you did it, they might understand. But if they don’t you have to live with that, Barry. You can’t risk going back and shattering the timeline anymore than you already have. You’ve made irreversible changes, and there’s nothing you can do besides tell them the truth.” 

“Thank you, Jay,” Barry stood up from the table, “see you around, Flash.”

“See ya, Flash.” Jay responded, before Barry zoomed back to his own Central City. 

Instead of going back to the lab or the house, Barry ran to the waterfront instead. It was the only place he could truly be away from everything he messed up. He just needed a few minutes to figure out how to tell everyone. He couldn’t just ‘kidnap’ everyone and bring them to S.T.A.R. Labs to tell them how badly he’s messed up this time...or could he? The dinner idea hadn’t worked out, but maybe forcing them all into the same room a second time might have a better effect on the situation. 

“Is that Barry Allen?” A familiar voice that he hadn’t heard in years awoke him from his thoughts. 

“Dibny? Ralph Dibny? What are you doing here?” 

“Date gone bad. I might have thrown up on my date on the ferris wheel.” 

Barry had to hold back laughter. 

For lack of a better term, Barry and Ralph were enemies. Ralph had been a good detective, but planted evidence to get someone convicted. Barry, determined to not let the thing that happened to his parents happened to someone else, testified against Dibny after he found the knife to be fake. 

“It’s okay, Allen. You can laugh,” Ralph chimed, “it was very traumatic for me, but laugh all you want.” 

“Sorry, Ralph.” 

For all that happened between them years prior, Barry didn’t have any ill feelings for Ralph. Barry didn’t want to ruin his career, but Barry’s conscience won out. Barry would not sentence another family to all the trauma he experienced. 

“It’s fine, Rookie. If it happened to you, I’d be laughing, too.” 

“Well,” Barry smiled politely, “I’ve gotta run.” 

“Bye, Allen.” Barry turned around, walking slowly, away from Ralph until he was out of site. 

Meeting someone that feels they’ve been wronged by you after many years is awkward--especially when you believe them to be dead. 

Back when Thawne was still masquerading as Harrison Wells, there was a meta that stole Barry’s speed. In a confrontation with Blackout, Wells listed off the names of those killed by the particle accelerator explosion. One of those being Ralph Dibny.  
Barry changed the timeline, so bringing someone back from the dead wasn’t totally out of the question. He’d brought Cisco and Singh back from the dead, unknowingly, when he accidentally went back in time for the first time. It wasn’t totally out of the realm of possibility, but what was changed in the past that made Ralph survive this time? 

Barry remembered hearing his name all those years ago, a jolt of guilt ran through him. It wasn’t his fault, right? He had nothing to do with the malfunction of the particle accelerator. At the time, he hadn’t known that Thawne’s intention for the explosion was to create The Flash. But Barry still felt guilty. Ralph was killed, and he felt guilty about it. Had Barry not had gotten Ralph fired, maybe he’d have been somewhere else at the time and would still have been alive. 

It seemed like one good thing happened from Flashpoint. He could feel less guilty about Ralph’s death, or lack of one. 

Barry ran around Central City finding the members of Team Flash. Cisco and Caitlin were at the lab, Iris was at CCPN, and Joe and Wally were at the West house. 

“Barry? What the hell?” Joe said, regaining his balance. 

“I guess I owe you all an explanation,” Barry sighed, “why I’ve been acting so weird these past few days.” 

“There’s a reason why I’ve been trying to get you two talking again,” he gestured to Joe and Iris, “and why I didn’t know why you were so angry with me, Cisco. I--” 

Barry then explained, once again, that he went back in time to save his mother from the Reverse-Flash after his father was killed. How he’d lived in that alternate universe for months, and why he ultimately ended up trying to change things back to how they were before. 

Cisco, listening to all of this, couldn’t take it anymore. He fled to the elevator, Barry following closely behind.

“Cisco, I’m sorry.” 

“‘Sorry’ doesn’t fix anything, Barry,” Cisco yelled, “Dante is dead, and I begged and begged you to go back and save him. You told me you ‘I can’t mess with the timeline, Cisco’ and ‘who knows what that will change, Cisco’ but you can go back and save your mom and dad? Look how much that changed, Barry.” 

“Cisco,” Barry started, unsure of what to say or how to fix this, “I wanted to go back and change everything, but I can’t. Jay explained to me how it could make things worse.” 

“I don’t care if it made things worse! At least I’d have my brother!” Cisco cried. 

“Yeah you would have him back, but because of it, somebody might have something happen to them that’s just as awful as what happened to Dante, and trust me, you don’t want that on your conscience,” Barry’s voice lowered a bit, “and trust me, that’s a heavy burden to bear.”


End file.
